Speculative EPOs, mine grabbing highlighted MashWest Miners for ED launch
The issues of speculative Exclusive Prospecting Orders (EPOs) and the rise of mine-grabbing cartels highlighted proceedings at the launch of the Miners for Economic Development (Miners for ED) Mashonaland West Chapter on Friday.
Rudairo Mapuranga
While EPOs are very important for Zimbabwe to quantify its mineral resources’ worth due since the country is hamstrung by a lack of exploration, EPOs have been abused by unscrupulous individuals who are now using the titles for other reasons, not exploration.
Speaking at the launch of the miners for ED Mashonaland West Province Chapter at Golden valley mine in Kadoma, Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) President Ms Henrietta Rushwaya urged the government to look into issues affecting miners, especially the issue of EPOs where land has been closed for pegging but with nothing being done by in terms of exploration.
“Our greatest plea that made us gather here is the issue of EPOs. Deputy Minister Hon Dr Polite Kambamura may you please pass our concerns to the government. EPO number 56 of 18 in Chakari, EPO 21 of 18 Golden Valley, EPO number 18 of 18 in Sanyati and EPO number 20 of 18 in Venice should be looked into,” Rushwaya said.
The Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development Hon Polite Kambamura who was the guest of honour at the event said the government was already cancelling some EPOs that we found to be held for speculative purposes.
“The issue of EPO has reached the hears of the President HE Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and we were ordered to look into the matter. We have discovered that people with EPOs are not really doing anything but holding the areas for selfish reasons. We have started cancelling some EPOs and we are going to cancel more speculative EPOs. In future we are going to cancel EPOs if they go for 6 months without providing any exploration reports,” Dr Kambamura said.
ZMF Mashonaland West Provincial Chairperson Mr Timothy Chizuzu on issues of mine grabbing said his organization was working closely with the police to ensure that miners are protected from a cartel that robs miners of their mining claims.
“We are trying to encourage small-scale miners to acquire Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). We have also been working closely with the police to ensure that miners are not robbed of their claims and we have been assisting our miners with court proceedings to save them from the cartels,” Chizuzu said.
Recently Mining Zimbabwe published an article of a sophisticated, dangerous and skimming mine-grabbing cartel which has invaded the City of Gold (Kadoma) and the surrounding areas where the cartel has been grabbing mines owned by unsuspecting individuals and mining syndicates.
The skimmers of the cartel (mainly gold buyers) will identify and investigate a small-scale gold mine that is consistently producing high grades. They then identify loopholes that they can use to create a dispute so that mining operations can be suspended by the court.
After creating disputes and taking the matters through the courts of law, the cartel makes sure that the case will never come out of court whilst operations are suspended as a way of making the miner desperate. (The miner will be accumulating debts from unpaid employees, lawyers and other costs related to the suspension of the operations thereby making him/her desperate to seek an outside court settlement.) READ MORE HERE